Erik Doughty is an Asian American writer from New Jersey. His work was recently published in Stymie Magazine and is forthcoming in Annalemma. He lives in Boston working as an editor at Digi-Block, Inc. and carries a notebook, air guitar, and inhaler with him wherever he goes.

The hummingbird in the freezer was the smallest of the birds. The largest was the crow. I wondered if they might be kept for the cats. Should I thaw one and feed them? Then I wondered if they might be for jewelry, as she kept a jewelry-making table in her study. I picked up the crow with both hands and held it out in front of me. Its feathers rustled in the draft from the freezer. Its head was bent at a hard angle, as if it had flown into a wall and broken its neck. Its legs were frozen

Be manic. Work through the holidays. Don’t give a fuck about the turkey soup and any other leftover. Scoff at the idea of Christmas lights. Say things like now we’ll finally get ahead with all that money I’m bringing in. Take medicine on an empty stomach; refuse ice, food, rest, and prayer. Minimize seven months of sobriety down to an easy feat to snatch again. While sober, make a choice at the liquor store. Stay up until four a.m. – with that choice – listening to Art Bell. Become convinced the government is behind it all. Realize aliens are

Pregnant with a watermelon, Maureen “Mo” Johnson, sex worker and shoplifter, tugs at her dress. Adjustments made, she heads for the exit, humming to herself. Humpty, her pet turtle, will dine well tonight. Fruit salad for everyone. Leaving the store, Mo recognizes the security guard from a port-wine stain on his forehead. Saturday night, unable to rise to the occasion, he’d demanded his money back. “You’re crazy,” Mo said. “Happy endings are never guaranteed.” She jumped from the passenger seat as he shifted his pickup into gear. Now, his thin-lipped smirk greets Mo once again. Mo tries to

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Wilma went down to the pool the other day only to find it filled with rigor. It wasn’t but a couple of days since Johnston had found a swirl of categorical imperative in the deep end. It used to be we’d just get physical stuff—bicycles, rat carcasses and the like—but the vandals are getting more sophisticated. I never would have taken this manager gig if I’d known all these headaches were in the job detail. The only reason I did take it was so we could have a